Method of generating a drill hole sequence plan and drill hole sequence planning equipment

ABSTRACT

Drill hole sequence planning equipment  14  includes a position determining module  18  for determining an initial location of a mobile drill rig  12 . A selection module  24  selects a destination location for the drill rig  12 . A corridor establishment module  26  establishes a corridor between the initial location of the drill rig  12  and its destination location, the corridor having a selected width. A processing unit  28  is responsive to the modules  18, 24  and  26  for selecting a hole location of each hole within the corridor to be drilled by the drill rig  12  sequentially as it moves from its initial location to its destination location.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of, and claims priority to,U.S. application Ser. No. 17/361,454, filed Jun. 29, 2021, now allowed,which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 14/770,149, filedAug. 25, 2015 now U.S. Pat. No. 11,073,000, which is a U.S. NationalPhase filing of International Application No. PCT/AU2014/000176, filedon Feb. 25, 2014, which claims priority from Australian ProvisionalPatent Application No 2013900662 filed on 27 Feb. 2013, the contents ofwhich are incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure relates, generally, to the operation of drills and, moreparticularly, to a method of generating a drill hole sequence plan, to amethod of operating a drill rig, to drill hole sequence planningequipment and to a drill rig control system. The disclosure hasparticular, but not necessarily exclusive, application in the field ofblast hole drilling in open cut mines but those skilled in the art willappreciate that it could be used in other applications such asexploration hole drilling and also in underground mining applicationswhere arrays of holes are to be drilled.

BACKGROUND

In mining operations, particularly in open cut mines, a drill holepattern containing details relating to blast holes to be drilled at amine site, such as a bench, is provided to a drill rig operator. Thedetails of the blast holes include data relating to the coordinates ofeach hole to be drilled as well the depth of each hole to be drilled.The details may also contain the type of drilling to be carried out,i.e. rotary or percussive.

The applicant has developed autonomous drill technology which enables adrill rig to tram to a hole location and to drill a blast hole at thatlocation autonomously. However, the drill rig still needs to becontrolled at some steps during the blasting of a sequence of holes.More particularly, the drill rig operator still needs to select thefollowing hole to be drilled and to provide the data relating to thefollowing hole to be drilled to a control unit of the drill rig. Thisreduces the efficiency of the drilling operation.

SUMMARY

In a first aspect, there is provided a method of generating a drill holesequence plan, the method including

-   -   determining an initial location of a mobile drill rig;    -   selecting a destination location of the drill rig;    -   establishing a corridor between the initial location of the        drill rig and its destination location, the corridor having a        selected width; and    -   selecting a hole location of each hole within the corridor to be        drilled by the drill rig sequentially as it moves from its        initial location to its destination location.

The method may include selecting the width to have a known safe bound ofa path of the drill rig. The method may further include an operatormanually selecting a width of the corridor.

The method may include, initially, accessing a hole pattern of holes tobe drilled by the drill rig. The hole pattern may include coordinates ofeach hole location and a depth of each hole to be drilled by the drillrig.

The method may include establishing the corridor on the hole pattern.

The method may include performing a distance check to see if a holelocation falls within, or within a configurable distance from, thecorridor. The method may include configuring the corridor to cover holelocations along a tramming path of the drill rig from its initiallocation to its destination location.

The method may include selecting an end hole location as the destinationlocation of the drill rig. While the destination location will generallybe the location of an end hole to be drilled by the drill rig, it willbe appreciated that the end location could be any other suitabledestination location such as, for example, an egress point for enablingthe drill rig to exit a bench after completion of drilling the blasthole pattern for that bench.

The method may include generating a start position of the corridor at alocation which is spaced from the initial location of the drill rig.

The disclosure extends to a method of operating a drill rig, the methodincluding

-   -   providing to a drill rig controller a drill hole sequence plan        as generated using the method as described above; and    -   causing the drill rig, which is responsive to the drill rig        controller, to drill a hole automatically at each hole location        sequentially along its path as the drill rig traverses the        corridor.

The term “automatically” is to be understood, unless the contextindicates otherwise, as being a system decision and not an operatordecision.

In a second aspect, there is provided drill hole sequence planningequipment which includes

-   -   a position determining module configured to determine an initial        location of the drill rig;    -   a selection module configured to select a destination location        for the drill rig;    -   a corridor establishment module configured to establish a        corridor between the initial location of the drill rig and its        destination location, the corridor having a selected width; and    -   a processing unit responsive to the modules and configured to        select a hole location of each hole within the corridor to be        drilled by the drill rig sequentially as it moves from its        initial location to its destination location.

The width of the corridor may be selected to have a known safe bound ofa path of the drill rig. Further, the equipment may be configured toenable an operator manually to select a width of the corridor.

The modules may be implemented as hardware modules or as softwaremodules. In the latter case the modules may form part of the processingunit.

The equipment may include an inputting module to enable a drill holepattern to be entered into the processing unit.

The corridor establishment module may be operable to configure thecorridor to include/exclude hole locations. The corridor establishmentmodule may be configured to conduct a distance check on a hole locationto determine if it should be included in, or excluded from, thecorridor.

The corridor establishment module may further be configured to generatea start position of the corridor at a location which is spaced upstreamfrom the initial location of the drill rig.

The processing unit may be configured to communicate with a drillcontroller to control the drill automatically to traverse the corridorand to drill holes at the hole locations falling within the corridor.

In a third aspect, there is provided a drill rig control system whichincludes

-   -   drill hole sequence planning equipment as described above; and    -   a drill controller, to which the drill rig is responsive, in        communication with the drill hole sequence planning equipment.

The controller may be mounted on board the drill rig, the controllercommunicating wirelessly with the drill hole sequence planningequipment.

The disclosure extends still further to a drill rig which is responsiveto drill hole sequence planning equipment as described above.

The disclosure also extends to software that, when installed on acomputer, causes the computer to perform a method of generating a drillhole sequence plan as described above.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

An embodiment of the disclosure is now described by way of example withreference to the accompanying drawings in which:-

FIG. 1 shows a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of a drill rigcontrol system including an embodiment of drill hole sequence planningequipment;

FIGS. 2-8 show screen shots depicting various steps of an embodiment ofa method of operating a drill rig;

FIG. 9 shows a flow chart of steps in an embodiment of a method ofgenerating a drill hole sequence plan and for controlling operation ofthe drill rig to execute the drill hole sequence plan;

FIG. 10 shows a schematic representation of the establishment of acorridor for use by the drill hole sequence planning equipment; and

FIGS. 11 and 12 show screen shots of an initial stage of anotherembodiment of a method of operating a drill rig.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENT

In FIG. 1 of the drawings, reference numeral 10 generally designates anembodiment of a drill rig control system. The drill rig control system10 controls a drill rig 12. The control system 10 includes an embodimentof drill hole sequence planning equipment 14.

The equipment 14 constitutes part of a drill rig operating system 16. Inan embodiment, the drill rig operating system 16 is an automated drillrig operating system which permits the drill rig 12 to operate in anautonomous mode.

Further, the equipment 14 is, in an embodiment, implemented in softwareand comprises various software modules. More particularly, the equipment14 has a position determining module 18 for determining an initiallocation of the drill rig 12 at an operational location, such as a bench20 of an open-cut mine into which the drill rig 12 is to drill blastholes 22, as will be described in greater detail below.

The equipment 14 further includes a selection module 24 for selecting adestination location for the drill rig 12 on the bench 20. Stillfurther, the equipment 14 includes a corridor establishment module 26for establishing a corridor between the initial location of the drillrig 12 on the bench 20 and the destination location on the bench 20, thecorridor having a selected width, as will be described in greater detailbelow.

The equipment 14 includes a processing unit, forming part of a centralprocessing unit or processor 28, of the drill operating system 16. Theprocessor 28 is responsive to the modules 18, 24 and 26 for selecting ahole location of each hole in the corridor to be drilled by the drillrig 12 sequentially as it traverses the corridor from its initiallocation to its destination location.

While the equipment 14 of this embodiment of the disclosure has beendeveloped particularly for use in open-cut mining for drilling of blastholes 22 in mine benches 20, those skilled in the art will appreciatethat the equipment 14 can readily be used in other applications. Theseapplications include, for example, drilling of exploration holes in anexploration zone, drilling an array of blast holes in a mine face of anunderground mine or drilling rock bolting holes in a hanging wall of anunderground mine. However, for ease of explanation, the equipment 14will be described below with reference to its application in thedrilling of blast holes 22.

The drill rig operating system 16 includes a navigation unit 30. Thenavigation unit 30 receives data from various input devices and/orsensors for determining the location of the drill rig 12 on the drillbench 20 with accuracy. The drill rig 12 includes a GPS unit 32, which,for example, is a high precision (HPGPS) unit, one or more video cameras34 and other position determining systems such as wheel encoders, laserscanners, or the like. Data from the drill rig 12 mounted equipment aretransmitted via a communications link 36 to the navigation unit 30 ofthe drill rig operating system 16. The navigation unit 30 determines thelocation of the drill rig 12 from the received information and providesthe location information to the processor 28. The processor 28, in turn,provides the information to the position determining module 18 of theequipment 14 for enabling the initial location of the drill rig 12 onthe bench 20 to be determined.

The drill rig operating system 16 further includes a tramming controlmodule 38. The tramming control module 38 is used for the automatedtramming of the drill rig 12 using information from the navigation unit30.

Still further, the drill rig operating system 16 includes a safetymodule 40. The safety module 40 is responsible for monitoring the statusof the drill rig 12, detecting possible collisions and implementingobstacle avoidance manoeuvres and/or taking other remedial action toprevent emergency situations arising.

The drill rig operating system 16 also includes a manual control module42 for enabling an operator to override autonomous control of the drillrig 12 and to assume manual control of the drill rig 12. Manual controlcan either be effected from a cabin of the drill rig 12 or via remotecontrol.

The drill rig operating system 16 includes a user interface 44. The userinterface 44 includes a display 46. The user interface 44 further hasvarious inputting devices such as a keyboard 48, pointing devices (notshown), or touch screen facilities on the display 46. The user interface44 receives inputs from the processor 38 of the system 16 and from theoperator of the drill rig operating system 16.

Instructions and data from the drill rig operating system 16 are fed viaa communications link 50 wirelessly to a controller 52 mounted on thedrill rig 12.

The drill rig 12 includes a drill mast including a drill string(depicted schematically at 13 in FIGS. 2-9 of the drawings) located at arear end region of the drill rig 12. Blast holes are generally drilledin a bench at a location directly beneath the drill string 13.

Referring now to FIGS. 2-9 of the drawings, an embodiment of a method ofgenerating a drill hole sequence plan using the equipment 14 isdescribed as well as an embodiment of a method of operating the drillrig 12.

To generate the drill hole sequence plan, a blast hole pattern 54 (FIGS.2-9 ) is input into the drill rig operating system 16. The blast holepattern 54 is generated externally of the system 16. The blast holepattern 54 is, typically, designed by surveyors and blast planners usingvarious software tools and taking into account various external factorssuch as the geology of the bench 20, the grade of ore in the bench 20,etc.

The blast hole pattern 54 is input into the system 16 in any one of anumber of forms, for example, by being exported from blast hole patterngenerating software to the drill rig operating system 16, via portablememory devices, suitable communications links (whether wireless orwired), or the like.

Hence, as shown at step 56 in FIG. 9 of the drawings, the blast holepattern 54 is imported into the drill rig operating system 16.

The equipment 14, using the position determining module 18,automatically determines the initial location of the drill rig 12 on thebench 20 and, specifically, the location of the drill string 13 relativeto the blast hole pattern 54 as shown at step 58 using data from thenavigation unit 30. The initial location of the drill rig 12 is shown at100 in FIGS. 2 and 10 of the drawings.

The operator selects a multihole target button 60 (FIG. 3 ) from anarray 62 of buttons related to path planning which are displayed on thedisplay 46 of the drill rig operating system 16. Once the target button60 has been activated, at step 64, the selection module 24 of theequipment 14 prompts the operator to select a destination location forthe drill rig 12. In this case, as shown in FIG. 4 of the drawings, theoperator has chosen destination location 66, labelled hole number “246”,in the blast hole pattern 54.

Once the destination location 66 has been selected, the corridorestablishment module 26 of the equipment 14 determines a corridor 102(FIGS. 5 & 10 ) between the initial location of the drill rig 12 and thedestination location 66. This is shown at step 70 in FIG. 9 of thedrawings. The corridor establishment module 26 of the equipment 14,using the data from the blast hole pattern 54, determines what blasthole locations are contained in the pattern which are within thecorridor 102 as shown at step 72 in FIG. 9 of the drawings. As shownmost clearly in FIG. 5 of the drawings, the holes to be drilled andlabelled “152”, “239”, “248”, “247” and “246” fall within the corridor102.

In one embodiment, a width of the corridor 102 is configurable by theoperator as a configurable input to the corridor establishment module.As will be appreciated, the wider the selected corridor, the more blasthole locations are likely to fall within the corridor 102 and,conversely, when a narrower corridor is selected the fewer the number ofblast holes that will fall within the corridor 102. Also, byestablishing a corridor 102 of a selected width it provides a known safebound for a path of the drill rig 12.

Once the corridor 102 has been generated by the equipment 14, the pathwithin the corridor 102 for the drill rig 12 to follow is highlighted onthe display as shown at 76 in FIG. 6 of the drawings. The path 76 to befollowed is generated by the operator pressing a path planning button 77of the array 62 of buttons. The path passes through each of the drillhole locations lying in the corridor 102 and, in use, the drill rig 12trams so that the drill string 13 is centred on the path 76.

The operator is prompted to press a start button 78 of the array 62 ofbuttons which commences automated operation of the drill rig 12. Hence,as shown in FIG. 6 of the drawings, once the start button 78 has beenpressed, the status of the drill rig 12 changes from “idle” as shown at80 in FIGS. 2-5 of the drawings to “tramming” as shown at 81 in FIG. 6of the drawings.

The drill rig 12 trams (the state shown in FIG. 6 ) from its initiallocation to a first location 84 (FIG. 7 ) on the path 76 at which a holelabelled “152” is to be drilled. At this location 84, the drill string13 of the drill rig 12 is positioned directly above the first drill holelocation “152”. When the drill rig 12 is positioned at location 84 inthe corridor 102, a drilling operation commences automatically and thedrill hole labelled “152” is drilled to the required depth. The statusof the drill rig 12 is shown as “drilling” as shown at 86 in FIG. 7 ofthe drawings.

Upon completion of drilling the blast hole “152” at the location 84, thedrill rig 12 automatically raises its drill string 13 and trams to asecond location 90 in the corridor 102 where the drill string 13 ispositioned directly over the location on the bench where a second hole,labelled “239” is to be drilled as shown in FIG. 8 of the drawings. Thisoperation occurs without operator intervention. At this location 90, theblast hole is drilled to the required depth.

The process of drilling and tramming is repeated until the drill rig 12has drilled holes at all the locations sequentially in the corridor 102up to and including the last hole labelled “246” at the destinationlocation 66. Once the last hole “246” has been drilled, the drill rig 12switches to an idling state and awaits further input from the drilloperating system 16. The tramming and drilling step is shown at step 75in FIG. 9 of the drawings.

While the drill hole sequence plan has been described with reference tothe destination location 66 being a drill hole location for the holelabelled “246”, it will be appreciated that the destination locationneed not necessarily be a drill hole location. The destination locationcould be any other suitable end position for the drill rig 12. Forexample, the corridor may be planned along the last sequence of holes tobe drilled in the blast pattern after which the drill rig 12 is to leavethe bench 20. To minimise the possibility of the drill rig 12 traversingalready drilled holes in the bench 20 or to require the drill rig 12 tocarry out undesirable manoeuvres, such as executing sharp turns, thedestination location may be an egress point (not shown) from the bench20.

Further, while the illustrated path 76 is shown as a substantiallyrectilinear path, it will be appreciated that this need not be the caseand the drill rig 12 may follow a zigzag path to have the drill string13 intersect drill hole locations within the corridor 102. In addition,the path 76 may include curved portions where applicable.

Referring to FIG. 10 of the drawings, the establishment of the corridor102 by the module 26 is described in greater detail. Firstly, anavailable rectangular area 104 is determined by the module 26 from aknowledge of the initial location of the drill string 12, thedestination location 66 and a set width of the corridor 102. One factorwhich plays a part in determining the available area 104 is neighbouringblast hole locations, such as blast hole locations 106 and 108, whichare to be excluded as they would require the drill rig 12 to executeundesirable manoeuvres such as turning too sharply to reach the blasthole locations.

For this purpose too, a start location 110 of the corridor 102 isspaced, or offset, a predetermined distance downstream of the initiallocation 100 of the drill rig 12. This is to exclude any hole locationswhich could be laterally located up to 90° relative to the position ofthe drill rig 12 and which would require undesirable manoeuvring of thedrill rig 12 to reach such a lateral hole location.

A downstream end 112 of the corridor 102 is selected by the corridorestablishment module 26 to be positioned downstream of the destinationlocation 66 to take into account lack of precision of floating points.If the downstream end 112 of the corridor 102 were generated to overliethe destination location 66 exactly, it is possible that the destinationlocation 66 could be excluded due to this lack of precision.

Once the desired area 104 of the corridor 102 has been determined, thecorridor establishment module 26 determines which hole locations lie inthe area 104. This is effected using data from the blast hole pattern 54previously input into the system 16. In the example illustrated in FIG.10 of the drawings, one blast hole location 114, in addition to theblast hole location at the destination location 66, is shown as fallingwithin the corridor 102.

The module 26 orders the sequence in which holes are to be drilled atthe locations 114 and 66 based on the positions of the locations 114 and66 relative to the initial location 100 of the drill rig 12. The module26 plans a single path from the initial location 100 of the drill rig 12to the first hole location 114 in the corridor 102 and, then, from thefirst hole location 114 to the destination location 66. In other words,the module 26 determines the sequence in which the holes are to bedrilled at the locations 114 and 66. It is to be noted that the path 76described above with reference to FIGS. 5-8 of the drawings, in use,lies as close as possible to a centre line of the rectangular area 104defining the corridor 102.

It is also to be noted that the above description of the establishmentof the corridor 102 is to explain how the corridor 102 is generated and,for this purpose, has been limited to only a single hole location 114between the initial location 100 of the drill rig 12 and its destinationlocation 66. In practice, there will generally be a greater number ofhole locations between the initial location 100 and the destinationlocation 66 as described above with reference to FIGS. 2-8 of thedrawings.

Referring now to FIGS. 11 and 12 of the drawings, another embodiment ofa method of operating the drill rig 12 is described. With reference toprevious embodiments, like reference numerals refer to like parts unlessotherwise specified.

In this embodiment, the corridor 102 is configured manually by anoperator using the user interface 44, for example, a touchscreenfacility of the display 46 of the user interface 44. The operator,noting the initial location 100 of the drill rig 12 sets the startlocation 110 of the corridor 102 by drawing a line 116 on the displaydownstream of the leading end of the drill rig 12. The length of theline 116 governs a width of the corridor 102 to be formed.

The operator then drags the line 116 over the display 46 in such amanner so as to establish the desired corridor 102. It is to be notedthat, in this embodiment the corridor 102, instead of being rectilinear,is arcuate with a radius of curvature selected to facilitate appropriatetramming by the drill rig 12 along the corridor 102.

The remainder of the drilling procedure is as described above withreference to FIGS. 2-10 of the drawings.

It is an advantage of the described embodiments of the disclosure that amethod, equipment and a system are provided which facilitate autonomousoperations of drill rigs, in particular, tramming and drillingoperations. Due to the fact that multiple drill hole locations arecovered by the corridor and are selected in a single operation by theoperator, continuous inputting of destinations by the operator for theautonomous drill is obviated. Thus, a number of drill holes can bedrilled without operator input. Hence, the efficiency of the autonomousdrilling operation is improved resulting in improved overall mineproductivity.

It is a further advantage of the described embodiments that a corridor102 is generated for the drill rig 12 which factors into accountdesirable operating parameters of the drill rig 12, provides a knownsafe bound for the path of the drill rig 12 and seeks to excludemanoeuvres which are undesirable, such as causing the drill rig 12 toexecute sharp turns, which is detrimental to the operating performanceof the drill rig 12 and which can also have an adverse impact on thebench 12.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that numerousvariations and/or modifications may be made to the above-describedembodiments, without departing from the broad general scope of thepresent disclosure. The present embodiments are, therefore, to beconsidered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive.

1. A method of controlling a mobile drill rig, the method including: providing, by a navigation unit, location information of the mobile drill rig to a position determining module; determining, by the position determining module, an initial location of the mobile drill rig; establishing, by a corridor establishment module, a corridor between the initial location of the drill rig and a destination location, the corridor having a selected width, the width being configured based on a desired number of blast holes falling within the corridor; selecting a hole location of each hole of a plurality of holes within the corridor to be drilled by the mobile drill rig sequentially as it moves from the initial location to the destination location; generating a drill hole sequence plan based on the selected hole locations; and providing the drill hole sequence plan to a controller of the mobile drill rig so that the controller, using the location information from the navigation unit, controls automated tramming of the drill rig to the selected hole locations sequentially.
 2. The method of claim 1 which includes an operator manually selecting a width of the corridor.
 3. The method of claim 1 which includes performing a distance check to see if a hole location falls within, or within a configurable distance from, the corridor.
 4. The method of claim 1 which includes selecting an end hole location as the destination location of the mobile drill rig.
 5. The method of claim 1 which includes generating a start position of the corridor at a location which is spaced from the initial location of the mobile drill rig.
 6. The method of claim 1 further including selecting the destination location based on a pre-loaded blast hole pattern.
 7. The method of claim 1 including the further step of causing the mobile drill rig, which is responsive to the drill rig controller, to drill a hole automatically at each hole location sequentially along a tramming path as the mobile drill rig traverses the corridor.
 8. Drill hole equipment which includes: a navigation unit which receives data from various input devices and which generates location information of a mobile drill rig; a processing unit in communication with the navigation unit and responsive to the location information to determine an initial location of the mobile drill rig; a corridor establishment module for establishing a corridor between the initial location of the drill rig and a destination location, the corridor having a selected width, the width being configured based on a desired number of blast holes falling within the corridor; a user interface in communication with the navigation unit, the position determining module and the corridor establishment module, via which a hole location of each hole of a plurality of holes is selected within the corridor to be drilled by the mobile drill rig sequentially as it moves from the initial location to the destination location, the processing unit further generating a drill hole sequence plan based on the selected hole locations; and a communications link to provide the drill hole sequence plan to a controller of the mobile drill rig so that the controller, using the location information from the navigation unit, controls automated tramming of the drill rig to the selected hole locations sequentially. 